The article “Why Diversity Matters” highlighted the inequality that has plagued the human race for thousands of years. Since industrialization, the world has only seen the recent few decades where women and people of color are given an equal chance in the workplace, although we are far from a world filled with racial tension we have made large strides in the direction of a true blended diversity rather than the segmented groups we still must deal with today. The standards and stereotypes that have been assigned to women and people of color have become a generational problem, where the belief in a monochromatic workforce outways the idea of letting a new perspective be apart of the organization. There’s no question that the color of your skin plays a crucial part in your perspective of our world today, to diminish a perspective that can shed light on the opposing side of the same goal is exactly what the article is proving to be the inefficient, wrong move for an organization. Racial/gender bias is developed from a mind closed to new ideas, for any type of organization to maintain a forward-thinking initiative the doors must open to the same caliber as they would for any human, regardless of the visual characteristics that segment our population today.
Cultures are formed around sets of ideas and moral codes. When an outsider enters a culture they bring their own ideology and morals, but to fully immerse yourself you and the people who make up the culture must agree and disagree together to form a community around the unique ideology you are creating and evolving. The quote from Bruce Perron stated “Organizational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organization from within.” The organizational culture is a shared collective, without everyone’s perspectives pointed toward the same direction and proper discourse the culture can not survive at its fullest potential. The author of the article, Michael Watkins, elaborated on this idea by bringing up sense-making, and states “a shared awareness and understanding out of different individuals,”. Whether there are more disagreements than agreements, the main goal of an organizational culture is to bring people together to create a shared mindset of how the organization will operate. Therefore, the culture can not be stagnant, the world is not perfect and clashing ideas are a necessary part for an organization to grow. The people that are a part of an organizational culture can have differing perspectives, although, for the culture to thrive they have they must share the same goals and beliefs for the organization.
Isaac,
The last line in your response was really what got me thinking. It makes total sense that an organizational culture can have different perspectives, but the second part is a bit more powerful: sharing the same goals and beliefs for the organization to thrive. This (to me) sounds like it’s certainly possible for a company to employ a diverse group of people with their own identity and beliefs and customs, etc, yet at the end of the day they can coalesce together and get the job done because they’re all hardworking and aiming for the same objective. I’m not naive to think that it’s always so perfect, believe me, I have worked with some really inept people before. But when the environment is healthy and there are a lot of different styles to go around and they all get it done, it’s a wonderful thing.
An important point–people can disagree and still collaborate, provided they share something of the same motivation/purpose/ goal. We would all do well to remember that in many different facets of our lives 🙂
The last sentence of your first paragraph really struck me, because I completely agree. Biases are formed and created due to a persons ability or inability to think differently or view the world in a different way than they originally were taught. I think this is a huge aspect for many organizations to maintain a healthy work place because at the end of the day, we are all humans and we should be treated as such. And if workplaces base their organizational cultural around accepting each others differences but sharing one main goal, it would be successful. Everyone deserves to be treated as an equal in their environment and it should not be dependent on what someone looks like or simply because of their gender identify.
I agree with you, in order for different cultures to succeed in different businesses, each person should share the same goals for that specific company. This is important because as you said, clashing ideas is ok, but when people have different goals, it becomes difficult to work together. I think that diversity allows for different life experiences which just helps to enhance the involvement of others in various organizations. Different perspectives definitely allow for a better, more rich work environment. I also believe that there should not be gender/racial bias if a business wants to succeed.
You raise another important point in here, Isaac–that generational diversity matters, too. A person’s generational cohort shapes them, particularly because so much of our formative years are spent within a peer culture (i.e. grade school, college, internships). Having a range of generational perspectives can be hugely important to an organization’s ability to adapt and thrive.